


The Stranger

by KeeperofSeeds



Series: Firestorm [3]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Canon-Typical Violence, Coping, Denial, Families of Choice, Friendship, Gen, Hunters & Hunting, Male-Female Friendship, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Not Beta Read, POV Gale, POV Male Character, Post-Games (Hunger Games), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-30 13:09:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8534359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeeperofSeeds/pseuds/KeeperofSeeds
Summary: Gale learns how the Games have changed Katniss.Back in the train station, before he'd been pushed out with promises to care for her family still drying on his lips, he'd told her that it was no different than hunting animals.How wrong he'd been.





	

 Gale has seen Katniss hunt, seen her take down game from 50 meters away without breaking a sweat. But in the Arena, she'd looked feral. Like one of the stray dogs that occasionally comes through the fence, foaming at the mouth and snapping at anyone that so much as looks at it.

That was the look on Katniss' face as the camera zoomed in on her, crouched in a tree above the Careers ready to attack. Her eyes flicker back and forth among the group, her movements sharp and quick as she climbs up another branch.

He'd thought she'd just been playing it up for the cameras.

Even as she'd climbed the ranks and even as she'd smeared blood across her face like war paint.

He'd seen her make friends with the little girl from 11.

Then again, he'd also seen her rage as 11 took a lance to the gut, calling out to Katniss for help. As the girl had died, Katniss had sang and kissed her forehead, tender as he'd ever seen her act to anyone except Prim. She'd covered the girl with flowers. The camera had lingered on the sight. A dead Tribute, honored by an ally to such a degree was rare.

They'd almost missed the next part.

Another camera had been focused on Katniss  and had later been intercut to show what happened next. She'd marched across the field to where the Career from 1 had been pinned, his hands clutching the wound at his neck as he tries to push himself away from the clearing with clumsy feet, choking on his blood all the while.

Katniss had picked up the arrow that had sliced through his neck from the green vines nearby, and plunged it in his gut. She'd disemboweled him. Left his guts hanging out like a deer waiting for slaughter.  
Later, they'd show Katniss fiddling with a small white bone as she'd made camp. Claudius Templesmith has gasped and pointed out that he'd been informed it was in fact a finger bone from District 1's male Tribute. How they'd gleefully zoomed in on her as she twisted a piece of leather around the bone and treaded it onto her jacket.

* * *

They just wanted a good show, he kept reminding himself. Even as his Mother held Mrs. Everdean close and tried to shield her eyes from the worst. Even as they told Prim to close her eyes and remember that it was all to come back to them.  He keep telling himself that: it was just a show. Just for the Games. It wasn't really her. Katniss who'd he had sat in the field with and laughed with over Capitol accents just last week. It must have been a strategy. Others had succeeded in the past. Playing it one way during the interviews and then surprising the other Tributes mid Game. The girl from 7 a few years back was the most recent success. That must be it. It had to be.  He couldn't think of the Capitol winning, of them taking Katniss and warping her so completely from the friend he'd grown up with.

* * *

After the Games, standing on the train platform next to Peeta, she'd caught his eye and waved. When she's seen Prim perched on his shoulders a rare smile lit up her face and he'd relaxed. _There_ she was. 

All those horrible things that had happened…they hadn't managed to break her after all.

* * *

It was hard to get close to her with all the bustle around moving her things and then her families things into the Victor's Village. Then there was all the leftover interviews and fussing from the Capital woman Effie. She seemed to want Katniss and Peeta glued together at the hip. And if Katniss seemed a bit more on edge, a bit more tense, surely it was just the stress.

Once all the cameras were gone she'd be able to relax back into home again, and put all that pretending behind her.

* * *

He'd thought she was faking it the whole time in the Arena, had convinced himself of it, until their next hunting trip, their first one  together since she'd return. He'd gone to lay a hand on her shoulder after the deer they'd been tracking for the past half hour had scented them and fled, a silent gesture of support ( _we'll get it next time)_ but she'd immediately turned and tried to stab him with the arrow she'd been relaxing off the bow. Her eyes had gone wide and she was throwing her weight behind each kick and strike and it took everything he had to duck back and stay on his feet in the carpet of leaves beneath them.

"Katniss! KATNISS STOP!" he'd cried out in shock, but she didn't stop;  he was sure she wasn't seeing him at all now, just another Tribute coming for her blood.

She stumbled on a patch of wet leaves while lunging forward and he took his chance, kicking her legs out from beneath her. She fell with a growl of "no-" before the air was knocked out of her and he was on her, using his height to pin her body and arms down.

"Katniss! It's me Gale! You're home! Your back! We're in the woods you made it, you did it, you're here, it's just us-" he keeps talking, rambling soothing nonsense until the snarl on her lip fades and her attempts to buck him off her back go still.

He doesn't move. He remembers in the area, seeing her use the other Tributes expectations against them. Drawing them in, thinking she was a wounded animal, only to turn and strike them down in a spray of blood.

"Katniss?" he tries again, searching her eyes for remembrance.

She's shaking now, but it's not in rage. Her breath is coming faster now, caught in her throat as panic fills those familiar grey eyes.

"Gale…" she croaks out, "I don't…I don't know what's real anymore. I feel like I'm still trapped in there. I still feel the warmth of their blood on my hands."

He lets her up, and they stay together in the woods, sitting knee to knee, holding hands for a long time after. Gale walks her through their surroundings, talking her through five things around them she can see, four things she can touch, three things she can smell…just like he remembers his Mum telling him to, until the shakes stop.

He's careful to not fall behind her on their walk back to the fence. Careful not to make it seem like he's stalking up from behind. They don't talk, and he knows she's embarrassed. He'd hoped they'd been friends long enough that Katniss would know she could count on him, but apparently the Games changed things. He isn't sure where they stand. This playacting as cousins should make things easier. Family is supposed to be there for each other. Katniss knows that, has spent her whole life living for that idea…but can he trust that she's still the same old Katniss? That…that _thing_ in the woods was another beast entirely. He doesn't want to think about his best friend about to murder him. Doesn't want to think about if she'd have stopped if he hadn't gotten lucky and swept her off her feet.

They say the Arena changes people. Just look at old Haymitch for easy proof, but this, this is different.  This is his best   _friend_! But in that moment, when he was holding her down…he didn't recognize a single thing about her. If she'd been a wild animal, he'd have suggested putting the poor think out of its misery. And that thought scares him.

After they bend low and slide through the broken fence Katniss holds out the squirrels they'd caught earlier.

A silent apology he thinks.

Not knowing what else to do, he takes them. She nods, her eyes not meeting his, and turns towards the Victor's Village. He watches her go, searching every line, ever angle of her posture, searching for the girl he used to know as well as his own family.

He'd told her that she could win. Back in the train station, before he'd been pushed out with promises to care for her family still drying on his lips, he'd told her that it was no different than hunting animals.

How wrong he'd been.

A stranger walks away from him now, and he doesn't know how to go about getting his best friend back.

**Author's Note:**

> "I came home to a woman  
> That I could not recognize  
> When I pressed her for a reason  
> She refused to even answer  
> It was then I felt the stranger  
> Kick me right between the eyes
> 
> Well, we all fall in love  
> But we disregard the danger  
> Though we share so many secrets  
> There are some we never tell  
> Why were you so surprised  
> That you never saw the stranger  
> Did you ever let your lover see  
> The stranger in yourself?  
> […]  
> You may never understand  
> How the stranger is inspired  
> But (s)he isn't always evil  
> And (s)he isn't always wrong  
> Though you drown in good intentions  
> You will never quench the fire  
> You'll give in to your desire  
> When the stranger comes along."
> 
> -Billy Joel The Stranger  
> https://youtu.be/qdLPI6XhEN8


End file.
